It'll be OK to get grumpy in Wabasha this weekend. Well... not really, but the city will be hosting its annual Grumpy Men Festival.

The event is based on the movie "Grumpy Old Men" which is based on life in Wabahsa. We're told the screen writer based the movie on his grandfather who was born and bred in Wabasha.

When the festival started 19 years ago, it had lots to do with the movie, but officials from the Wabasha-Kellogg Area Chamber of Commerce say these days it's more about celebrating winter.

     "Ya know, (it) gets to be a little long. it gets to be drawn out and everything and so having people come here in the winter and hey... we do have a ski hill, we can ice fish, we can do this.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Gov. Terry Branstad concedes his proposal to overhaul the state's property tax system isn't moving smoothly through the Legislature, but he expresses optimism his effort will prevail.
    
Branstad says Monday that he knew from the beginning that revamping property taxes would be a tough sell. He says if the solutions were simple they would have been done 35 years ago when officials began debating the issue.
    
The Republican governor says he's in the midst of intense negotiations with both Republicans running the House and Democrats running the Senate and is willing to make concessions to win approval.
    
He's told Democrats he'll expand an income tax cut for the working poor and assured Republicans he'll increase the state's share of school budgets.
 

A plan to continue an education spending freeze in Iowa has passed the State House.

The plan leaves a two percent increase for next year in place since it has already been approved.

That measure also calls for lawmakers to approve two-year budgets for schools instead of debating the issue every year.

In the Senate, a budget has been approved that would increase K-12 spending by $122 million for the 2013-2014 school year.